1. What non-racing event are you most looking forward to attending with Rick Hendrick?
Non-racing? What other events are there? You mean there's other stuff outside of racing? OK.
Let me think on this one. Man, I don't know [because] I don't do anything besides race. Maybe it'd be a Redskins football game or something, because I'm a huge Redskins fan. I tell you one thing I am looking forward to. I'm looking forward to my first Hendrick [Motorsports] Christmas party. I haven't heard anything about 'em -- I'm just looking forward to going.
2. Your dog Killer's about to enter young adulthood, so what do you feel is his biggest challenge?
Yeah, he's 3. He's gotten way better at the accidents, which was his last challenge. But his biggest challenge now is that every time I let him out of the house, he runs to my sister's house. She [Kelley] lives about 300 yards up the driveway. And he goes up there to play with her dogs and it pisses me off 'cause I want him to just go out, use the bathroom and come back inside. But he wants to go up there, and the next time I see him he's full of mud and other smelly things -- he's got crap all over him and it's a pain in the butt having to keep him clean. If you let him out and expect him to come on back on his own, no -- that ain't happening. I've got to stand out there with him and holler at him every time he starts heading in that direction.
He's like a horse that knows where the barn is.
3. What home entertainment accessory do you not have, that you feel you must have?
I'm not without anything right now. As far as everything goes, I've got it all covered. I've always been attracted to electronics, and home stereos and things of that nature. The fun thing is going to be seeing the next thing they come out with.
I thought my 61-inch TV was pretty big -- but not after I saw that 70-inch that Sony had out here. So I'm going to go for the 70. I'm going to actually try to get something bigger than that, even if I have to remodel my living room. The one thing that I don't have is a projector so I can put a sheet in a tree -- you know, hang a sheet up in a tree and watch things outside, out at the pool and stuff. It would be kind of cool to have a projector so you can watch TV while you're out swimming in the pool.
4. If you had time to waste, how would you waste it?
If I had time to waste, I would rent a house on the shores of South Carolina -- somewhere around Charleston -- that had a front or a back porch, one or the other, facing the beach. And I would drink cold beer for about four days on that porch. That takes care of what I would do with a week's vacation, too.
5. If you could have any one you wanted, which vintage Chevrolet would you most want to own -- and would it be more stock, or hopped up?
Vintage, eh? It'd be a Nomad. About a '55 Nomad, chrome from one end to the other underneath everything, orange and white. I like the Nomad because of the room inside. The Nomad can look real good if you paint it up right -- orange and white, with chrome from the front to the back, underneath the hood and the under-carriage and everything -- all chrome-plated. It doesn't have to have a whole lot of power. That's not important. And the less noisy the better, because you're going to ride in it, and have your buddies riding in it, with a good stereo. It sure would look good on a South Carolina beach.
6. If you were the mad scientist, which technological marvel would you most like to invent?
I think somehow or another I'd want to speed travel up, so if it was travel in a plane, I could make it twice as fast -- or not even need the plane at all. Yeah, like, 'Beam me up, Scotty' -- sort of like a teleport to get from one place to another. I want to go to Australia, all right? And to take my buddies first class is $12,000 a person. Now, we can get there, probably way cheaper than that in the coach, but if we're going to go for 10 days and have a good ol' time, I'm going to have to save up some money. Twelve grand a person is ridiculous! So obviously faster, cheaper air travel is what I'd go for.
7. Which home improvement project would you un-do, if you could?
I've got the concrete go-kart track I put in, and I should have asphalted it. It would have to be that, because it's so rough it's ridiculous -- totally useless. That was 60 grand down the drain, literally, because it's useless right now. I want to asphalt it, and I've just got to get somebody to come out there and do it. It's not something that somebody particularly wants to do. Even if you owned an asphalt company, you'd come out there and look at it, and go, 'I've got some other work I could be doing on some flat ground.' It's like Bristol, but 14 or 16 degrees of banking.
8. What makes the biggest first impression for you: A smile, a handshake or the first words spoken?
Well obviously, you see 'em before you hear 'em. So I think the first impression's probably gonna be their smile. But I think the one that [has] the most impact is probably what they first say. A lot of people, even if their smile says 'trust me, I'm cool,' and then what they say is totally the opposite -- then you're having a little trouble, there. But I really listen a lot, because it's real important to listen.
9. A number of your Hendrick teammates-to-be, in order to remain low-key, have homes outside the Carolinas. Is staying under the radar pretty important to you, and at any point do you plan to go the same route, and having a getaway place?
Staying under the radar definitely becomes a way of life as you get older, and I'm not quite there, yet. But I think the older you get, the less attention you want to call to yourself -- at least, unnecessary attention. So yeah, a lot of these guys find ways to have the same amount of fun, in another place where nobody knows, or nobody can say or nobody can form an opinion -- and they can just live their life. I haven't really got there yet, but I think eventually I will. I've thought long and hard, 'Man, I want to get a house there,' and, 'I want to get a house there.' But I think, since I'm still a little bit undecided on where that's going to be, I have yet to buy one. Because I know I'll try to get rid of it and then get another one somewhere else. But I think it's going to be a few years before I really settle on 'this is going to be my getaway.' I really don't know where that is, but it'll probably be closer to home than I think -- or that a lot of other people might think. Probably somewhere like that house in Charleston that I was talking about. It'd be somewhere quiet and somewhere where the weather is about the same, and where the people are about the same. I don't want to get too far away from home, yet at the same time some solitude every once in a while is nice.
10. You got anything that people might consider atypical on your portable music player?
Surprises? Well, I've always tried to come across as down to earth with everything I've done -- but sometimes things surprise you, like you got a Barry Manilow song on your iPod, or something. Well, I do. Weekend in New England is one of my favorites. He's awesome. I think a lot of people listen to him that wouldn't admit it. You can blame my sister for that. When our mom lived up in Virginia we'd take some long rides up there and [Kelley] got me hooked
Dale Jr:
Orange
Orange
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